Core Alternative Capital Has $5.33 Million Stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Core Alternative Capital grew its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 11.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 45,941 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,721 shares during the period. Core Alternative Capital’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,333,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. State Street Corp grew its position in NetApp by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after acquiring an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of NetApp by 276.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after acquiring an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 31.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $96,873,000 after acquiring an additional 187,638 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 64,110 shares of company stock worth $7,632,601 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $123.02 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $120.99 and its 200 day moving average is $122.04. The firm has a market cap of $25.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.61, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.80 and a 52-week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.53.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID.